Bloodmaul Slag Mines

Content

Lore

On the northern outskirts of Frostfire Ridge, the Bloodmaul ogres run a brutal mining operation amidst the sweltering heat of active volcanic caverns. Slaves from across Draenor are transported to the mines, never to leave alive. The Slag Mines produce abundant yields of gemstones and ore, but is rumoured that the true purpose of these mines is to dig for an ancient relic of immense power.

There are several different types of ogres you’ll meet in the Slag Mines. You’ll start with a first pack of Enforcers, which do Beatdown, Crush and Lumbering Leap. Beatdown will do heavy tank damage, while Crush is a frontal cone aoe, which can be sidestepped. It’s easily spotted since the Enforcers will raise their maces before doing the ability. Lumbering Leap is a random target charge (or you know, leap).

Geomancers create a shield on their allies called Stone Bulwark, which should be purged. Mages do Lava Burst that should be interrupted as often as possible. The Subjugate ability is a stun, channelled by Overseers. This ability should also be interrupted.

There will be several Slavers across the mine. These can enrage, which should be dispelled with appropriate abilities. The Warders will cast Frightening Roar, with a very short cast time. It can be interrupted if you’re fast. Otherwise the party will take damage and become feared.

Trash up to Magmolatus

The corridor up to Magmolatus (the western boss of the two you can start with) is called the Slag Forge, and it is a gauntlet riddled with fire elementals. These are the following;

Magma Lord – Pillar of Flames (ground effect)

Vengeful Magma Elemental – Cinder Splash

Molten Earth Elemental – Lava Arc (cleave)

Unstable Magma Elemental

Searing Ember

At the beginning of the gauntlet, you’ll meet a Vengeful Magma Elemental and a Molten Earth Elemental. These are medium-sized adds. The Vengeful Magma Elemental will constantly spawn more Searing Embers with Cinder Splash, while the Molten Earth Elemental do Lava Arc, a frontal cleave. Focus the medium-sized adds to diminish the tide of fire elementals and lower the party damage. Several Unstable Magma Elementals will also join the fight, but these have no interesting abilities.

The big add is the Magma Lord which will constantly do Pillar of Flames all around him. Several Unstable Magma Elementals will also join in from the sides. Focus the Magma Lord while sidestepping the flame pillars he create and cleave down the surrounding adds.

After two more Vengeful Magma Elementals, there’s a last pack of ogres. These are fighting a Molten Earth Elemental, which should be prioritized. Then there’s a Bloodmaul Mage, Warder and Magma Binder. Paralysis is a great ability to use, even in combat. CC one of them and use Leg Sweep or Charging Ox Wave to manage the rest.

Magmolatus

The ogre geomancers of Frostfire pride themselves on harnessing the elements, but sometimes they overreach. Gog’duh has stoked the flames of his forge to new heights, driving Magmolatus into such a fury that it requires Gog’duh’s full concentration to keep the raging slag elemental under control.

List of Abilities

Stage One: Frantic Forgemaster

Gog’duh assaults players with blasts of magma, pausing only to hastily conjure elementals in his defence.

Gog’duh

Magma BarrageLava splashes to the floor, inflicting 28,000 Fire damage every 2 sec to enemies in the lava pool.

Molten Impact (Important!)Creates a Molten Impact near an enemy target, summoning a Molten Elemental. The impact inflicts 52,500 Fire damage to enemies near the centre, decreasing in damage the further away targets are.

Molten Elemental (DPS Alert)

Magma Barrage(Interruptible)Lava splashes to the floor, inflicting 28,000 Fire damage every 2 sec. to enemies in the lava pool.

Healing Strategy

The fight against Magmolatus is a two phase fight, where you start by fighting his summoner; Gog’duh. When he is dead you fight the summoned fire elemental Magmolatus.

Faint trail from Shatter Earth

The first phase is fairly easy and you can start it off in Crane stance. Gog’duh has one simple ability; Magma Barrage, which spawn several magma pools across the room. Two adds will be summoned, Calamity, servant of flame and Ruination, servant of earth. Don’t stand in front of Ruination to avoid the frontal cone and be prepared to sidestep the surreptitious Shatter Earth trail. Calamity will cast debuff on the party which should be dispelled as soon as possible to prevent further spread.

Once you’ve downed both adds and Gog’duh, Magmolatus will finally spawn. Here the damage will start to mount up so it might be a good idea to switch to Serpent stance. Magmolatus also has a debuff that needs to be dispelled; Withering Flames. If it’s not dispelled, it will cause Choking Ashes on other players, and your party won’t like the consequential slow in movement, cast and attack speed. Magmolatus will also do Slag Smash, a surrounding aoe. Just sidestep it to avoid the damage.

Once in a while, he’ll cast Molten Impact which is a pool of magma that do damage the closer you are to it. It also spawns a Molten Elemental, which should be killed quickly.

Serpent Tactics

Dispel both Dancing Flames and Withering Flames.

Sidestep any ground effects.

Be ready for increased damage once Magmolatus spawn.

Crane Tactics (Optional)

Help interrupt and kill all the adds.

Trash up to Slave Watcher Crushto

The Slave Quarters are filled with Ogres and slaves to hinder your progress to Crushto. The Enforcers will do their Lumbering Leap on random players while using Crush in melee. There will also be Geomancers, Magi, Warders and more. Try to CC some of the adds to make the damage for more manageable.

Slave Watcher Crushto

This cruel ogre taskmaster oversees the mining operation within the sweltering pits beneath Frostfire Ridge. Slaves from across Draenor are delivered to Crushto’s care, who views them as expendable and will not hesitate to bludgeon them into submission (or worse) if they step out of line.

List of Abilities

Earth CrushInflicts 125% of normal melee damage to all targets in front of the caster. Stuns for 3 sec.

Ferocious Yell (DPS Alert) (Interruptible) (Enrage)Increase the damage dealt by the caster by 15% for 20 sec and weakens the will of nearby miners.

Wild SlamSmashes the ground, inflicting 9262 to 50,000 Physical damage to all enemies and knocking them back.

Crushing Leap (Healer Alert)Leaps to enemies, smashing them into the ground. Captured Miners are ordered to attack crushed targets.

Raise the MinersCalls nearby miners to assist in battle.

Captured Miner

Captured Miners are forced to fight for their slave master, but some will turn to your side upon noticing your faction.

Traumatic StrikePummels the target, inflicting 100% weapon damage and causing them to take 5% additional damage for 6 sec.
Also causes the target to bleed, inflicting 1,300 Physical damage every 2 sec.

Healing Strategy

Earth Crush

This is a boss that require some environment awareness. Crushto will do Earth Crush (a pillar of stone in front of him) in a random direction and no one should stand directly in front of him at the time, no matter how far away. Earth Crush damage and stuns all enemies in a long frontal cone. Stay relatively close to Crushto to sidestep this easier.

Once in a while he’ll try to cast Ferocious Yell which is an enrage. This ability should always be interrupted to avoid the heavy damage. The party will however take unavoidable damage when he does Wild Slam, which is also a knockback. After Wild Slam he’ll leap on a random target, crushing it and add insult to injury by calling miners to fixate on the same target. Try to avoid the Crushing Leap as far as it is possible (you’ll have a short moment to move from it).

It’s safe to ignore the miners and focus on the boss, just pop a cooldown or use a stun if they become too annoying.

Serpent Tactics

Players who don’t sidestep Earth Crush will take heavy damage.

The poor guy who gets leaped on will need some special care when the miners come.

Be ready with AoE healing after Wild Slam.

Crane Tactics (Optional)

Interrupt Ferocious Yell.

Help crowd control the miners to minimize damage.

Trash up to Roltall

In the magma pool on the west side, the larva-like Slagna will emerge. She uses the ability Lava Spit which does moderate damage and leaves a pool of damage.

On the east side, the huge boar Gnasher resides. He is not obligatory and can be safely bypassed. If you want to kill him, note that he do both charges and bleeds on his targets.

Just before the bridge to Roltall, there’s a huge pack of Ogres. Try to CC the Geomancers so they won’t put shields on their allies. The Warden and Overseer are particularly annoying with their fears and stuns, so try prioritize them first.

Roltall

Roltall is a fearsome elemental conjured by Gug’rokk himself and tethered to the threshold of Gug’rokk’s chambers as a final bit of insurance in case of a slave revolt. The fiery creature keeps eternal vigil in its appointed place, calling down molten rock to repel any intruders.

List of Abilities

Fiery BoulderRoltall summons a fiery boulder that inflicts 58,500 Fire damage to all enemies within 8 yards of impact. The fiery boulder rolls forward and inflicts 78,000 Fire damage to all enemies in its path, stunning them for 1 sec.In Heroic and Challenge difficulty, Fiery Boulder will return to Roltall along the same path once it reaches the end of the bridge.

Heat WaveRoltall summons a deadly heat wave that inflicts 10,000 Fire damage every second and pushes all enemies away for 8 sec.

Healing Strategy

This is a very special boss which you can, as a Mistweaver, do in two different ways. If you have two or three melee dpsers in your party you can stand in melee range of the boss and heal the entire fight in Crane stance. If you have two or three ranged DPS, you have to stand on the bridge and heal as a caster in Serpent stance. The reason that casters can’t stand in melee is because of Scorching Aura, which reduces cast speed with 100% for anyone standing in melee.

I personally favour the Crane stance tactic, since I only have to dodge boulders instead of boulders and fire. But it’s perfectly feasible to always do it in Serpent stance no matter what setup you have. If you choose to do it in Crane Stance you want to have Chi Explosion as a melee heal and use Life Cocoon and Surging Mist on the eventual ranged. If you do it in Serpent stance you want Xuen and Glyph of Surging Mist so you can quickly dodge fire and boulders and whatnot.

In its essence, this is a simple fight, but not an easy one. The boss has three major abilities. The first you might notice is the three gigantic boulders that drop from the roof. These roll over the bridge in three lanes, and in Heroic they also rebound. The second ability is Burning Slag which ignites some fires under the rangeds’ feet. And the third is Heat Wave which is a wind that pushes everyone backwards while dealing some ticking damage.

As a caster you have to deal with all three abilities while as a melee you only care about the boulders. You can DPS while the Heat Wave is active if you have some movement increase. The biggest issue is the boulders since they also stun, in addition to all the damage it does. If you have to choose between standing in fire and standing in the path of the boulder, choose the fire. Try to pop a cooldown while walking through it, though.

As logic goes, the safest place to stand (for both melee and ranged) is where a boulder has recently been. So if you see a boulder rolling away, stand in its place and move as soon as the next boulders roll away and stand there instead. If you just keep track of where the most recent boulder have been, you’ll be fine.

Serpent tactics (Optional)

Stand in the middle of the bridge.

Use Xuen for healing while you move, and Glyph of Soothing Mist to quickly dodge all the effects.

Dodge boulders and the fire. If you have to choose, stand in the fire instead of in the boulder, but pop a personal cooldown (Fortifying Brew or Diffuse Magic).

The safest place to stand is where a boulder has just been.

Revival is best used during Heat Wave.

Crane tactics (Optional)

Chi Explosion for melee healing, Life Cocoon and Surging Mist for ranged healing.

Trash up to Gug’rokk

The Ogrons deal heavy damage, especially to the tank. Since they are immune to most crowd control effects, be prepared for heavy healing.

There are four Flamespeakers just before the boss, which can be done in two pulls (the left-side add can be pulled alone). Just sidestep their frontal fire cone and interrupt their Exploding Flames. If some of the Exploding Flames get through, be careful of the damage the flaming orbs do.

Gug’rokk

Born in the capital of Highmail, Gug’rokk was at first disdainful of his assignment as the governor of the Bloodmaul Mines deep within Frostfire. Over the time, however, he has come to appreciate the merits of operating on the outskirts of the Gorian Empire, with absolute control and minimal oversight.

Healing Strategy

Many, many Magma Eruptions

The fight against Gug’rokk requires the party to stack, otherwise the whole room will be covered in pools of Magma Eruptions, which the boss will cast on all the players. The best tactic is the start at one end of the room, close the wall, and together move slowly around the room’s walls.

Gug’rokk will sometimes summon an Unstable Slag that will try to get to the opposite side to the room, to a kiln. If the add reaches the kiln he’ll become empowered and start to hurt really badly. The trick is to kill him before he reaches the kiln and try to stun and slow him as often as possible. If he becomes empowered, be ready with Revival and if you have, Xuen.

The boss will also try to cast Molten Blast, which must be interrupted! If he succeeds in his cast, he will get a stack of Molten Core, which increases his damage with 10% for each stack. At 3 stacks he will explode, “Molten Barrage”, which causes massive amount of damage. You should never let this happen.

For healers it’s important to note the debuff Flame Buffet, which is applied to everyone in the party. The debuff causes some damage and increases the player’s fire damage taken with 5% for each stack. Since there will be so many debuffs to dispel, everyone should help out with dispels (if they can). Healers should always prioritize the player with the highest amount of stacks. Glyph of Detoxing which gives you 2 charges of Detox is perfect for this fight, and use Diffuse Magic to get rid of your own stacks.

Serpent tactics

High party damage.

Party should stack to place the Magma Eruptions. Exceptions are made when the add is active.

Dispel Flame Buffet. Prioritize dispels on players with the highest amount of stacks. Glyph of Detoxing is very good for this fight!

If Gug’rokk gets three stacks of Molten Core and cast Magma Barrage, be ready for really heavy damage.